FREE SCHOOLS.
rTo THE EDITOR OF THE " Spam...Ton:1
have just had sent to me a letter of a Rev. James Wallace, of Redcar, dated August 14th, inserted in your paper, which is so untrue, and so calculated to do harm, that I must give an emphatic denial to the statements there made.
It is said that all the boys and girls connected with a certain largo Presbyterian church in Alnwick have to attend the Church of England ; and this because the Duke of Northumberland supports the schools of the place so liberally that the children are educated free, on condition that they attend the services of an alien Church.
Now for the facts. In Alnwick, so far as elementary schools are concerned, the National School educates some 700 children ; the Borough School, 300; the Ragged School, 75; the Duke's School, 100; the Duchess's, 60. The two latter are the only schools which are free; so that instead of a free education being the rule, it is only a small proportion—about one in ten of the children in the town—who have a free education. This is -exclusive of the freemen's children attending the Borough School. True, these 160 have to attend the Church of England on Sundays; but the parents have never made any objection to it, and they are eager to get admission for their children into these schools. Also, of the 100 boys and 60 girls, most are of Church families ; and in connection with the particular meeting- house, the pulpit of which Mr. Wallace occupied, there are only seven families in the Duke's School and three in the Duchess's.
The absence of the boys and girls from the congregation (" hardly a boy or girl was to be seen ") can hardly be accounted for by nine boys and four girls having to attend the Church of England services. Where are those who attend the Borough, National, and Ragged Schools, in none of which is any notice taken by way of compulsion as to where the children go? It surely says very little for the congregation in question if these are not with their parents.
Whoever is to blame, it is certainly not "the landed pro- prietor making use of free education as a propaganda of Epis- copacy." 1t would be starting a wide subject of discussion unsuitable to your paper, and not connected with that of "free education," were I to mention the probable causes ; but, in fairness to those who are interested in the education of children in Alnwick, and to correct a very misleading and unfair and ungenerous statement, I would ask you to insert the above.—I
am, Sir, &c., EDWARD B. TROTTER, Vicar Of AllIWiek.
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